Cbs Executive Wants To Slash News Budget

NEW YORK -- The chief executive of CBS Inc. has asked CBS News to cut its budget up to $50 million, or 17 percent, prompting a drastic reassessment of the worldwide CBS News operations.

The request for streamlining came from Lawrence A. Tisch, chief executive officer and the largest shareholder of CBS Inc., and may bring a radical restructuring of CBS News, according to people at the network. The proposed budget reduction could bring dismissals and cutbacks at the news division that would make the severe cutbacks of last year -- in which more than 100 CBS News employees were dismissed -- look like ``chicken feed,`` one CBS official said.

At the core of the issue, according to many CBS executives, is that the news operation does not look like a reasonable business enterprise to the new chief executive. The CBS News budget has grown rapidly in recent years, from $89 million in 1978 to the nearly $300 million this year, and the division regularly loses money.

The largest chunk of that money, nearly $100 million, is spent on the CBS Evening News. Tisch is said to have questioned the wisdom of such an expenditure on a 22-minute program.